It’s never too early to get started. The really organized people start around Rosh Hashanah (September), but most wait until Channukah (December) or the end of January at the latest. At HappyPurim we’ve gotten calls from organizations looking to run their first Mishloach Manot fundraiser ever, just 2 weeks before Purim! We are able to help you out even last minute, but to run a really successful fundraiser you should start your basic planning in December. Here is a suggested timeline based upon the March 10 date of Purim in 2009. (This calendar is designed for users of Happy Purim’s Shalach Manot Software based upon our experience. There’s a post from last year with more details for anyone still doing this manually.)

In December:

Identify the person/s who will run the fundraiser

Decide on a “theme” for your baskets (not necessary, but popular; we’ll post more about “themes” later).

By January 10

Compile (or get from organization office) a list of all the members in your organization. Make sure to double check for accuracy!

Sell baskets for “personal use” to your members. In addition to the “communal baskets” that are the mainstay of this fundraiser, offer baskets for sale to your members for them to distribute on their own. Your members likely have friends, family and neighbors who are not members of your organization, whom they would like to give baskets to. Instead of making baskets on their own, or purchasing them from a store, why not give your members an easy solution that supports your school or synagogue at the same time? You should charge a higher price than what you charge for “communal baskets” — you must ensure that you’re making a profit off of these baskets! This is very easy to add to your Purim project by using Happy Purim’s Personal Use” module.

Selling personalized baskets with delivery or shipping included is a great way to significantly increase the revenue of your fundraiser. Many of your members probably order shalach manot from stores or websites and have them shipped to friends and family across the country. Why not capture those orders for your organization? This does add a significant amount of extra work, but people are usually willing to pay a nice premium for this service (just look online for what others charge). Happy Purim’s “shipping basket” module makes this much easier to do by capturing the addresses and personalized messages for these special orders.

We have some other ideas, and tips that can ONLY be done using our system–feel free to call 646-345-4032 or email Ari (at) HappyPurim.com to find out more!

Charging a setup fee for your purim project is not user-friendly in that you make it prohibitively expensive for those people who only want to send to a few people. Your members that plan on sending mishloach manot to many people will do so regardless of whether you charge a $20 setup fee and $2 per recipient, or simply $3 per. You will probably make the same amount of money from these “big spenders” regardless of pricing, but you risk alienating those members who only want to send a purim basket to 2 or 3 people (those members who don’t know a lot of other members, but may be interested in sending to the Rabbi/s and Cantor). Yes, you won’t make the $20 set-up fee from them, but there’s a good chance they wouldn’t have spent $26 to send mishloach manot to 3 people—but they would likely spend $9 to send to 3 people without thinking twice.

If your logic is that people should cover the cost of their own baskets, a setup fee won’t necessarily achieve that. Your members are paying to SEND greetings, not receive them. If a person doesn’t participate, but someone sends to them, they’ll still receive a basket, despite not paying your setup fee.

We would also recommend against a setup fee for reciprocity for the same reason that it may keep people from choosing this option. Reciprocity is a great feature that usually helps you raise more money by serving as a “catch-all.” That is, it is intended as a backup in case someone sends to you, and you didn’t send to them—you would select this option to ensure that everyone who sends to you receives from you. As the administrator this hopefully increases the total number of names selected, and thus, the money you raise. A problem arises when your members rely on reciprocity and either don’t place an initial order at all, or a very small one. At HappyPurim.com we do not allow “reciprocity-only” orders because we must capture the members credit card to charge them for their reciprocal order. We can also setup your account to require a minimum number of baskets to be ordered in order for the member to select reciprocity. The best idea however, may be to charge a higher amount, but not much higher, for reciprocal orders. For example, if you’re charging $2 per regular recipient, you may want to consider charging $2.50 per reciprocal.

How Much can I Raise from a Purim Fundraiser? One of our clients has raised close to $80,000! A more realistic number is $20,000 for a membership of 300-500, but we have a few clients in that range that are raising around $40,000 annually. It depends on the size of your “membership” list, and more importantly, how you MARKET and run your fundraiser. If you simply send out one flyer announcing the fundraiser, you’re not going to raise all that much. Multiple mailings, emails and phone calls must be made. This is marketing just like any company does for a product–multiple impressions must be made to ensure success.

How Much Should I Charge? $2-$5 is the average per shalach manot, but $2-$3 seems to be the sweet spot. You should do really well with this Purim fundraiser as long as you send nice baskets, that is, something that would cost $20-$40 retail. Your members thus get a great deal–it only costs them $2-5 to “send” a basket that would cost them $20-$40 to send on their own.

The truth is, it’s never too early. The really organized people start around Rosh Hashanah (September), but most wait until Channukah (December) or the end of January at the latest. At HappyPurim we’ve gotten calls from organizations looking to run their first Mishloach Manot fundraiser ever, just 2 weeks before Purim! We are able to help you out even last minute, but to run a really successful fundraiser you should start your basic planning in December.Here is a suggested timeline based upon the March 21st date of Purim 2008.

In December:

Identify the person/s who will run the fundraiser

Decide on a “theme” for your baskets (not necessary, but popular; we’ll post more about “themes” later).

By January 15

Compile (or get from organization office) a list of all the members in your organization. Make sure to double check for accuracy!

It is an increasingly popular way for Jewish institutions to raise money while at the same time continuing a tradition that is centuries old. In short, members pay their organization to collectively deliver mishloach manot (Purim Baskets) on their behalf to other members. The organization charges a fee ($3-$5) per recipient selected by each member, and then sends one basket of food to every member that was selected, along with a card that lists the names of those sending to that person. In other words, if 10 people decide to send to you, you will only receive one basket, along with a card that lists the 10 names.

Mishloach Manot fundraisers, also called shalach manos projects, Purim shuttles, or Purim projects, can be great community builders, as well as being very profitable. However, the management of such fundraisers can become complicated when dealing with a community that is larger than 50-100 members. In such cases software can make the job easier, and web-based software, such as HappyPurim.com’s, can make the job MUCH easier.

HappyPurim.com’s application takes the membership lists/order forms and puts them in dedicated, password protected, site so that your members can simply click on the names of the people they would like to send baskets to and pay immediately. The proprietary software automatically tabulates and organizes the data, allowing the fundraiser administrator to easily print cards or letters to attach to the Shalach Manos baskets. There’s no need for administrators or volunteers to mail lists of members and order forms, collect the lists along with payment, verify the payment and orders are correct, tabulate the names of each and every member that selects another member, and list them on card. All of this is done automatically, even collecting the payment online and calculating and charging for optional reciprocity (we’ll be writing a dedicated post on reciprocity later).

As you can easily imagine, this saves an incredible amount of time, allowing the volunteers and administrators to focus on marketing the fundraiser and creating the baskets. We’ve also seen that putting this online (i.e. making it easy!) and accepting credit cards, can often increase the amount of money raised.

What is Purim? Purim is the Jewish holiday recorded in the Book of Esther (Megillah) commemorating the delivery of the Jews from the plot of Haman to exterminate them.

When is Purim? Purim is celebrated on the 14th of the Jewish month of Adar (in cities that were walled in the time of Joshua, on the 15th). In 2009 it is from sunset March 9,through nightfall on March 10.

There are 4 mitzvot (commandments) associated with Purim:

1) Megillah—Hear the reading of the Book of Esther.2) Have a festive meal.3) Matanot L’evyonim—Gifts of charity to the poor.4) Mishloach Manot—The sending of gifts of food and drink.

What are Shalach Manos / Mishloach Manot / Purim Baskets?It is the mitzvah on Purim of sending a gift consisting of at least two items of food to another person. To fulfill this obligation, one must give food that can be consumed without further preparation, such as, baked goods, fruits, candy, wine, or other beverages. It is best that a third party deliver these gifts. The phrase mishloach manot used in the Megillah implies that this mitzvah should be performed through a 3rd party. These Purim baskets are also called: shlach monos, shalach manot, mishloach manot, shalach manos, Purim manot, shalach minot, shalach monos, mishloach manos, mishloach monos and probably a few more. If you know of another spelling or name, please let us know!

HappyPurim.com provides a unique web-based software application for managing Mishloach Manot fundraisers. Through years of research, testing, and lots of great feedback from out clients, we’ve developed the best, most technologically advanced, yet easy-to-use solution for managing a Shalach Manos fundraiser. For a FREE web-based demo of our amazing software, please contact us by submitting your information HERE or email ari(at)happypurim.com.

Hello fundraisers, volunteers, administrators and everyone else! We at HappyPurim.com are writing this blog to provide information about Shalach Manot fundraisers. Namely, we will be writing about our research, statistics, and most importantly, our years of experience managing Shalach Manos fundraisers. We welcome your questions and comments and will try to respond in timely fashion.